What Would Mr. Aaron Do?

So the other day I was talking to my student Echo who is one of my brighter and more diligent students, and actually seems interested in learning English (that actually doesn't happen too much). Anyways, she came up to me and asked me if I remembered helping her prepare for a presentation on the labor market and I said I did. From there, she went on to tell me that after she finished her presentation for Mr. Ern (who is one of the Filipino teachers here at Blue Sky) the other day he asked her what she would think if China lost the capability to fund their economy and stores and hospitals started closing down because of lack of funds, and everyone lost their job.

She told me frankly that she was shocked and didn't know what to say. So she thought "What would Mr. Aaron do or say?" So she said told me that she remembered how I say "So sad" (I admit that this is nearly Chinglish, but it makes my students laugh so I am okay with it), and decided that is what I would say in that situation. So she told Mr. Ern "It must be so sad...." I have no clue what Mr. Ern said, but if I was there I would have been laughing outloud. I half wonder if she said, "I think this is what Mr. Aaron would say."

So there you have it. I have successfully indoctrinated the students to mentally ask themselves, "What would Mr. Aaron do?" My job is done here...

Lost in Translation: Where Did March Go?

Well, I feel like it has been such a long time since I have be able to sit down and write what has been going on in my life. This last month might have been one of the most intense months of my life since coming to China - to say the least. I feel like so much that could have been said or shared about this last month - in some ways - has been lost, and unfortunately might be something that I will never be able to truly articulate. Nonetheless, I would still like to pretend like I can fill you in on the ups and downs of living in the 'Chang.
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Big Decisions:

This last month felt like one of the longest months of my life. To start off with, March 15th was the date by which we had to make a decision as to whether or not we would stay with our organization. Honestly, I had thought that this decision would have come in a timely manner and with much more certainty as to what I should do. I was a silly person. January passed by, February went by with a flash, and all of a sudden it was March. I had thought that thinking about it and/or worrying about the decision would have only made things worse, but I failed to take into account that not engaging the subject at all might leave me with the inability to ask the appropriate questions and truly access my situation.

With a week left to go I began calling friends and trying to think the decision over; however, pulling a classic 'Aaron move' I decided to make a head strong decision without thinking through all the questions I might need to truly take into account for jumping with both feet in. Perhaps, it is due to my somewhat serious nature and willingness to jump into situations that I don't entirely know everything about. I guess it is good to be reminded that we all can use some accountability, and perhaps I need it more than I would like to admit at times.

At any rate, I have made the decision to go home after I finish up the school year here at Blue Sky University. I feel it is the right decision as of right now, but I cannot lie that I am torn for my love of teaching and living in China. I face a world of uncertainties in returning home that I don't have to always face here. I have been blessed to be given a reprieve from the challenges and traps that we all face when dealing with American culture. Yet, I know I have grown and been challenged in ways that I will not truly know the extent of until I return home, and interact with all of you I know. Plus, I know that our Father will challenge and continue to grow me back home.
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Spiritual Challenges: The 'Haze'

My second challenge - but greatest challenge - was finding myself again and focusing back in on what the Father might have me hear about what was going on in my life. I feel like halfway through the month of March I realized that I was out-of-touch with things, and everything just felt a little off. It's like when you keep on hearing yourself say things to questions about your 'Walk' with the Father, but neither hear from yourself any improvement and/or concern. After a couple weeks of this, '"red flags" started to go off for me - even I was a little encumbered and slow to react. It seems that my 'Walk' has been something of an all out fight, which I apparently wasn't fighting for. It's embarrassing to admit, but it's the truth.

I feel like I was taken without a clue having not had the spiritual armor and/or protection that we all talk about having and vigilantly guarding. Interestingly enough, I should mention that at this point I had begun memorizing Ephesians 6:10-18. Go figure, huh? Even now - just writing this out - I am realizing how much making forward progress is something that I have been fighting for, and not taking this knowledge seriously has seriously inhibited my ability to make progress with victory.

While coming out of the 'Haze' has been slow, I have been refocusing slowly but surely on His strength. I have realized how desperately I need to hear and read the Word everyday that I might be able to function effectively. I am hoping that this realization will continue to manifest itself in my life that I can see its fruits not only here and now, but when I come home.
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Teaching English: The Ups and Downs

So at the beginning of this semester I gave my students two oral projects: (1) Culture Project; (2) English Project. My hope in giving my students these two projects was multifaceted. First off, having students - especially Chinese students - do homework (I have found) is semi-unproductive and ineffective, especially when your main goal is to improve their oral English. Of course, one has to take into account that I teach at a private university, which is like the equivalent to teaching at a community college with equal or less motivation of some American students. Second, students simply don't turn it in and/or listen to instructions no matter how many different ways you explain it. Plus, there is the factor of time that it involves, but let us not go there. Thirdly, and a much more practical reason, I found that having students write and/or do homework was not accomplishing my real objective of them speaking in English.

So I made it easier on myself. I cut my student's homework assignments by over half - lessening their overall impact on my students grades - and gave them oral projects instead. The Culture Project requires my students to prepare cultural presentations (on Chinese culture) in pairs and present at the beginning of class every week. This effectively allowed students to have more speaking time and practice listening to their peers. Unfortunately, I didn't take into account - enough - the need for accountability and interaction from the audience in listening to a presentation by doing simple things such as: taking effective notes, asking questions, etc... On the other hand, when I wrote my rubric and grading structure, my hope was simply for them to get up and speak. So I guess I am kind of in a win - lose situation.

The English Project is slightly different. I gave my students this project due to their complaints that they couldn't find any "foreigners" to talk to. Perhaps, being slightly generous and seeing the benefits of spending more time and getting know my students better I offered myself to be their guinea pig. I told them that they had - between February and May - to do several random activities which required them to practice their English, including spending time with me. Thus, lately, I have become under the barrage of students asking me: "Mr. Aaron, do you have free time? I want to make an appointment with you?" So pretty much now, when I am not teaching or doing team activities, I am spending time with my students. It is both a blessing and a challenge for me since I am not entirely the person who is recharged by being around people all the time. Plus, the longer they hold out and wait till the last minute the more chaotic my schedule will become. Even meeting with them 4-5 at a time really doesn't seem to make a dent when there are somewhere around 180 of them and only 1 of me. So if you think about it 'lift me up' because I am definitely running a race here.

Recruiting Students

On a side note. My university is known for sending their students home to recruit other students half-way through the semester. It is really the most peculiar thing that I have ever heard of a university doing. However, there is an incentive for students to go since the university will give them money if they manage to get a student to come to our school. The disturbing part - I find - is that the headmasters earn just as much or more if they are able to encourage students to leave and return home to recruit students. For the teachers here, it is something that we really can't make sense of.

As of now, it looks like well over half of my students will start leaving beginning the last week of April and continue till May 1st, which is a national holiday for them. The figures I have been able to collect - in asking my students to let me know if they are leaving or not - shows me that out of a total 180+ students around 130 of them might be returning home with an unknown return date. My BE3+4 class might actually be leaving in full force too. So I might possible drop from 4 classes to 3 in May if these statistics hold true. My other classes which always hover near 50 students each will drop drastically, having only 20 students or less in each class.

Why Shopping for External Hard Drives, Eating @ McDonalds, & Deodorant Will Never Be the Same

Over the last two weeks, I have been blessed to have 3 guys from one of my classes attach themselves to me and always want to hang-out. Their names are: Michael, Armstrong, and Will Lee. I must confess that my other relationships here have been difficult at best and draining the rest of the time. One can never determine what kind of people the Father will put before you, and I am learning to be thankful for the people and relationships that I am entrusted with and given. Nevertheless, these 3 guys have been refreshing to hang-out with and a joy to talk to!

Anyways, I have started eating dinner with them every Thursday and it is an opportunity for me to pour into them as well as learn more about them. This last Thursday they took my to their dorm room, and then to their classroom where they must study for 2 hours (7pm-9pm) before they are allowed to go back to their dorms for bed. I enjoyed the opportunity to spend time outside the classroom with them and to be allowed to see a glimpse into what their everyday living situations are.

(Jack, Armstrong, Will Lee, and Michael)

(Dorm room)

Chinese Dorm Rooms: An Education on Student's Living Environment

Chinese dorm rooms work a little bit differently from the ones you might come to have known back in the States. Each room holds 6 people (or more) and has what we like to call a shoilet (shower/toilet). Shoilets are a combination of a shower and toilet, with the shower not being separated from the rest of the bathroom and the floor acting as the drain. However, in this case - instead of a western toilet - the students have a squattie (hole in the ground).

From there - as you can see from the picture above - the students are sleep on bunkbeds lined up against the wall with their respective desks lined up on the opposing wall. I have no clue where they do their laundry, but like everyone else in China they hang it out their window and hope that it drys quickly. I should mention that on a windy day one often sees somebody's pants, underwear, and various other kinds of attire fly away and land some where in the middle of campus. My friends and I are blessed to have a covered patio from which to hang out laundry to dry.

Shopping for External Hard Drives

Yesterday, the Michael, Armstrong, and Will Lee volunteered to help Jonathan and I go shopping for external hard drives since my computer is currently trying to kill itself. I should make a short list for you of what is currently going wrong with computer.

1. Constant Blue Screen of Death
2. Computer won't turn on, fan runs really high, and there is beeping sounds.
3. Constant Freezing
4. CD-ROM works 10% of the time.
5. Headphone jack is broken
6. AC-Adapter likes to be finicky and not work, making my computer look like a light show as it goes from a dull to a bright screen rapidly.

At any rate, we ventured downtown and made our way to the Technology center next to Ba Yi Square where we go to buy movies, cds, and anything related to computers and cameras. Michael, Armstrong, and Will Lee debated with the sales people like champs cutting off 100 yuan ($15 dollars) from the original quoted price. We also managed to get a web camera in the deal as well, which is nice since it would be really cool to actually see other people when talking to them on skype. However, we will see if my computer holds out.

McDonald's: The Guys' 1st Hamburgers & The Art of Treating Chinese to Food

While shopping for the external hard drive I decided that we really needed to do something nice for these guys since they were freely giving such much of their day to helping us. You must understand that to go somewhere and accomplish an errand takes nearly 5 times as long as it may for you back home. Not speaking the language or having access to your own car really makes transportation and shopping a challenge. So I asked them if they prefered Western or Chinese food, but I got mixed messages as the Chinese are known for saying, "Whatever is fine". Sound kind of familiar to some poeple you know back home? LOL So I decided to ask them a pointed question: "Would you rather have hamburgers or Chinese food?" This was much more successful in that I found out that they had never had hamburgers, and so I told them that we would treat them to their 1st hamburgers.

I must make two clarifying points about this situation. First, whenever you are in China you better be very specific about who is treating who. If you aren't, you will almost never be able to pay for the meal - unless it is beyond their means - because you are foreigner and they are Chinese. What this means is that they are always the host and you are always the guest. So I made sure to make it very clear that Jonathan and I would be treating them to McDonald's and that they were not allowed to pay. I should note that the fear of them beating us to paying for the food is a little diminished since eating at McDonald's is expensive for most Chinese.

(Will Lee, Armstrong, Me, and Michael)

So we finally made it McDonald's, bought hamburgers, made it through the normal everyday awkward ordering situation that happens whenever we try to buy something we don't know the Chinese for, and sat down to eat. Michael, Armstrong, and Will Lee practically devoured their hamburgers - which were extra small looking since we are in China - and looked hungry still; it didn't help that all of them are from the Northern part of China since Northern Chinese are the same size as Americans and eat just as much. Nonetheless, I ran back downstairs and ordered another 5 hamburgers since Jonathan and I were also still hungry. This, of course, raised the eyebrows of the Chinese employees behind the counter as they are not use to Americans ordering. Furthermore, as far as the Chinese were concerned, 2 Americans had just downed a better part of 5 combo meals and were looking to finish off another 5 hamburgers.

The Power of Deodorant: "Mr. Aaron I want to Smell like You; I want to be cool like You."

As we were finishing the meal, Armstrong begin asking about deodorant again, but since the Chinese don't use deodorant he didn't know what to call it, and couldn't remember me telling him how to say it. He said, "Mr. Aaron I want to smell like you; I want to be cool like you." He had told me earlier in the day that I had a certain scent about me and wanted to know what it was. I think he even mentioned something silly like that the girls liked it and so he wanted to have some of whatever this "scent" was. Two things are funny about this situation: 1). The fact that I am having a conversation about deodorant, and that my students wants to smell like me; 2). My student thinks that I am the model to follow for what is COOL, and actually thinks that i am cool.

I told the guys, since they all chimed in about wanting some deodorant, that I would give them some when we got back to our apartment. Upon arriving, Jonathan reminded me that there were some extras in the desk where we kept random supplies. So I went over and found 3 - coincidentally - and gave them to the guys. They were pretty excited. I realized after giving them the deodorant that we would also have to give them instructions on how to use it - an odd thought all-together separate. I told them that they should double check to make sure that they weren't allergic and Jonathan pointed out that they could put some on their hand and if it didn't turn red after a day they could use it. I told Armstrong to only swipe his armpit twice lest he become overly enthusiastic about using the stuff and coat his entire body in it.

To finish the day I watched Sandlot and figured everything was just as it should be.